The beasts and a scarecrow
by ArtlieST
Summary: An end will always come. Everything has an end, right? But is the end always as it seems? Is death really the calm, black void we imagine, or have we been wrong this whole time? Rated T for language and some violence.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, One Piece nor any of their characters. Though there might appear some characters made up by me, I will try to avoid it. 

Chapter 1; The end isn't as calm as it seems

The day was finally here. Was that a good way to put it? Finally..? He wasn't too sure. It was a day he had waited for, for what seemed like an eternity, but was it a good day? Or was it bad? He just couldn't decide, as he walked through the all too familiar streets on more time. It had to be at least the seventh time that day, but it might also be the last.

He suddenly stopped his train of thoughts along with his walk when he got to another familiar sight. Ichiraku Ramen. So many memories passed before his eyes as he made his way in to the small food stand. The place was really nostalgic, and he remembered all of his moments here, both better and worse. He looked at the stand owner, gave him a small smile and a slight nod and ordered the usual. The man gave him a sad smile back, and started making the order under a comfortable silence. When he was done he served the younger man his food and went back to take care of the rest of his business with more costumers entering the stand.

So he sat there for a while, just slurping noodles and remembering. Those days after missions when he went here with his team after a long debate about what they were going to eat. And after a slightly shorter debate and some blackmailing they usually got their teacher to pay for the food. Those were the days. Those were the ones he would miss the much. If he would be able to feel the loss of others after today. Nobody could know.

After taking to the streets again the met up with the man who once was his teacher. That was way back, before he even became a proud shinobi. They chatted for a while, the older of them close to tears all the time. Then they said their goodbyes and went separate ways. The older looked at the younger man's back, while letting a few silent tears flow down his cheek, all of them following the same trails down his cheek. His eyes closed, and he turned around as well.

The younger man kept walking, watching the clouds above, not paying attention to the road before him. He knew it by heart. This was one of his best escape routes as a child, when he played all of those pranks on the higher ranked ninjas. He slowly shrugged and took a leap into the air, landing on one of the rooftops surrounding the road the just followed. His eyes followed the skyline of the village. He had always felt much freer on top of the seemingly endless rooftops. No obstacles were in his way, and he could run to his heart's extent.

It was almost time now.

He turned towards the monument that featured his face together with the late hokages. It would be his last time seeing it, would it not? It was a rather sad thought. He remembered something else he used to do as a child, and took of once again, this time with a more direct goal in his mind. You could say it was a self imposed mission of a smaller kind. He had one last thing he knew he had to do before he could let everything go.

He reached his destination and took in the view. He could not even remember how many times he had been sitting there, taking in the view of his beloved village. He always sat on top of the fourth hokage's, his father's, head. He made sure to burn the view into his mind forever, as this was the last time he would be sitting here. He pondered a bit about life and if this was the right decision after all, but decided to stop. Those thoughts only made him sad, and sadness was the last thing he wanted to feel right now. He just wanted to be happy and grateful for the life he had led up until now.

But he kept remembering the things that made him sad. He thought how he would never split an ice cream with his teammates again, nor would he be able to wish someone a happy day, nor tell someone that they would see each other the next day.  
He would never be able to take a cup of tea together with his teacher again, and ask him questions he just could not understand himself.

It was soon time.

He jumped down from the head, allowed himself to feel the feeling of free falling for the last time. It felt better than ever. He felt calm, and a sudden rush of adrenaline made him laugh a bit. But as soon as it started it was over. He landed on top of what was his, the hokage's, office. Was. The thought that he never again would have an all out battle with paperwork made him feel a bit sad again, but the sight before his eyes managed to cheer him up some.

Before him his comrades walked up the stairs towards the roof he stood on. They got up and slowly made their way towards him, one with a big grin, one with a rather normal smile and the last one with a much sadder smile. His comrades in life. His comrades beyond life.

Behind them walked the four men who would do it. The act he had waited for so long. The one he could not decide wether it is good or bad. He smiled towards his comrades. He was not scared, not at all. He was ease.

They stood beside each other as the crowed seemed to become bigger and bigger. He had never thought that this event would gather so many people. Some had looks of grief, some of relief. This would be something he would never forget about. If he kept his memory wherever he went. He did not know, but he still felt some hope. He had lived long enough to know that nothing is impossible.

"It is time now, isn't it?" he asked the men beside him. They just nodded as an answer. It really was time. The swords were raised and came crashing down. The world went black.

A/N:

Hello! It's been some time since I last published a story of any kind, but I'm back now and I will try to keep this story regularly updated. I apologize in advance for any grammatical mistakes and bad sentence structure. I do not have English as my mother tongue, but I am trying my best!

This chapter is short, I know. It is short for two reasons; it is a prologue and I suck at writing longer chapters. I kind of lose the red thread if I do, but I will try, I promise!

Please do leave a review and tell me if you like it, and what I can do better. I would appreciate it a lot! :)

Love, ArtlieST


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: So chapter number two is out! This one is unfortunately short as well, but I hope that's fine. I have planned the 7 first chapters, and if I would make this longer I would've had to mash it together with the next one, and that wouldn't have felt right... Anyhow, on with the chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, One Piece nor any of their characters. Ryouichi is a character of mine though.

Chapter 2; Unexpected company

Naruto woke up with a rather different feeling in his chest. This was weird. Was this how the afterlife felt? He decided that the feeling came from being deprived of oxygen and tried to open his eyes. It was tough, but after some struggling he managed to pry them open and the sight that met him was rather shocking. He was under water.

Far up he could se the surface. How far was it? Maybe thirty meters, he was not sure. He took a few strokes, testing his limbs abilities. Then he made for the surface, shooting upwards. When he broke the surface he grabbed it and heaved himself up on top of it. Sitting on it he realized that he still felt rather strange. It was like the air around him was different. It was like nothing he had ever felt before, not even like the world of the summons. As far as he could see in each direction was nothing but water, water and more water. No land at all.

Was this hell? Just a large open sea? No, that could not be. He changed his sitting position to one better for meditation and started gathering nature chakra. With it he could feel everything. But what he felt was what he expected, and even though he did expect it, it confused and surprised him. He was in a whole new world. From the information the nature chakra brought him, it was a big world, slightly larger than his own.

That was when he realized it. He felt presences he recognized! He could feel nine of them! This meant that he was not alone in this new world. He let out a whelp of joy, before he thought that he might not want to stay in the same place for so much longer. He had to get going if he wanted to get to land before he ran out of chakra.

Speaking of chakra, he remembered that he had one more thing to do before he could set of towards the closest familiar presence. He put his hands together, and suddenly he stood in a bright void. He moved his eyes upwards, to meet Kurama's. "So you're still with me. That's a relief! How do you feel?"

"I have the worst fucking headache ever and I do believe I am missing at least one tail's worth of chakra", the large fox grunted, sounding utterly tired and slightly lightheaded. That was not a good combination, and Naruto found it safer to let the fox sleep for the moment. He said his goodbyes and left the mindscape, fully intent on finding the people behind the presences.

—

After three hours of running Naruto decided to take a break on a small islet he found in the middle of nowhere. He had never had to run on top of water for such a long time before, and truth to be told; it was tiering. He would have to work on his chakra control. That had never been his strong side.

While he took his breather he noticed something. As he ran before, there had been different birds, mostly seagulls, following him, and every here and there a dolphin had tried playing with him, but now it was quiet. Too quiet. The only thing that could be heard was the small waves crashing against the islets rocky edges.

He looked out over the sea, turning around once or twice. Then he saw it. He was moving. The movement was slow, barely noticeable, but it was there. He turned his sight down, towards the ground he was sitting on. Something was weird about it. It was not rocky at all, even though it had seemed like before.

Naruto lifted his fist and punched the so called ground, hard. The result was that his small islet grew larger, lifting him up high in the sky. This was no islet, this was a huge, serpent-like creature!

"Holy shit, Kurama, can you see this? It is almost as big as you are!" Naruto gasped, looking surprised. In his world there had, after all, only been a total of ten creatures as big as Kurama, the fox included. This was new. But what could you expect in a new world? "I like him. What do you say buddy, should we beat his ass?"

He could feel the fox shifting in his mind as he got the answer, "Well, he, or rather it, feels rather powerful, but not dangerously much. Not compared to me, or even compared to your shitty ass."

"Bastard! You're just still hung up on the fact that I beat you!" the man grinned. Not wanting to hurt the creature too much, he simply took a deep breath, pounded on his chest and shouted; "Fūton: Renkūdan!"

A bullet of wind ripped through the air, hitting the poor creature with a big impact which sent him flying a good fifty meters. Not that fifty meters is anything at all in the beasts eyes, but considering how heavy it should be, it is a rather impressive feat.  
After feeling the force of the bullet, the creature felt the difference between itself and the man before it, so it yielded by sinking it's head to the water surface.

Now that it had finally calmed down, Naruto could se just how big it actually was. While not entirely as large as the kyuubi, it did have a size to rival Gamabunta himself. It looked like a green moray eel with the head of a leopard shark. It was an interesting combination at least.

The eel gave out a sound similar to that of a dolphin's while nodding it's head. It seemed like it was trying to say something.

"You should be happy that I somehow understand this shit, brat", Kurama said. "He is telling you that he will follow you wherever you go, and to point out a direction and accept his help. As long as you need it, that is. It appears he is rather intelligent, despite his looks. He understands human language, somehow, so don't bother me anymore. I'm going back to sleep."

Naruto smiled inwardly and asked the creature if he had a name. When it shook it's head as a no, he told it that from this day on, he would be called Ryouichi, "good one". It looked very happy, and together they set of towards the sunset. No, not really. Their destination was the opposite way from the sunset, but you get the picture.

A/N: Do be kind and leave a review with your opinions, so that I can change the story if there is a major fault in it! :)

Love, ArtlieST


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, One Piece nor any of their characters.

Chapter 3; A recognized face

Naruto and Ryouichi had travelled for almost five days when they finally spotted land. Unfortunately the villagers all screamed and ran away in panic when they saw Ryouichi, which hurt his feelings a bit. Naruto comforted him with some kind words and a pat on his head, before jumping off and telling the sea king o stay put and wait for him. The large creature nodded and sank down under water to take a well needed nap while he waited for his master to return.

The young blonde strolled on the streets that lead through the village. At first people stared at him, which was no surprise seeing he just jumped down from the head of a monster, but as he got further into the village less people seemed to notice him. While he was used of being stared at, he didn't like it and tried to avoid it as much as possible if there was no reason for it. It reminded him a bit of his younger days, and that was nothing he wanted to remember.

The village was bustling of life. It was quite large, but nowhere near the size of Konoha. The streets were filled with people and street vendors broke off the two-story houses every here and there. It seemed generally friendly, but the atmosphere was a bit broken. Naruto was not fully sure, but he got the feeling that underneath the friendly demeanor the entire population of the village was tense. It felt like something had happened here not too long ago.

"Whoa!" he let out as he suddenly had to duck unless he wanted a wooden beam in his face. He turned his attention to his right and noticed a building site. Getting curious he poked the man who held the beam on his shoulder. As the man turned around he had to evade the beam once more, but gave the man a smile.

"Hi there! I'm just traveling through and I wonder; what are you building?"

The man gave him a long look, as if he was assessing him before deeming him worthy of an answer. "We are restoring some houses from when some pirates attacked us a few weeks ago. Ruthless they are. Ruthless indeed", he said before turning around, making Naruto evade the beam a third time. He started walking again, eager to get to work, when the young man stopped him once again. He turned back with a look of annoyance while Naruto stepped just out of reach for the beam.

"I can help you", the blonde said. "I've got a lot of time after all."

The man assessed him for a second time, "I don't think you have what it takes."

"Oh I assure you that I do", Naruto put his hands in a cross before saying "Kage bunshin no jutsu". Fifty clones of the him appeared and one of the took the beam out of his hand like it was a feather. "Just tell me what to do and I'll do it. I have plenty of experience when it comes to building", he said. And he did. After all, he had help a lot with restoring Konoha after Nagato had destroyed the village. And then there was this time when he helped build a bridge… All in all, he had experience.

The man just stared at him like he had seen a ghost, before pointing in the direction where he needed the beam. Soon enough, all of Naruto's clones had something to do, and it did not take many hours before the house was done.

After the work was done, Naruto followed his fellow workers to the nearby pub, where the others offered him a sake and told him he deserved it. They shared stories and laughed for hours before he noticed it. A new presence made itself known in the bar. It was one of the ones he had recognized. He turned around and his eyes widened. There, just behind him, stood Yagura. The fourth Mizukage. The jinchūriki of Isobu, the three-tailed turtle.

"What the hell?!" was Naruto's last words before he passed out due to the combination of lots of alcohol and the shock of seeing someone who should have died more than a decade ago.

—

"-ey, Naruto? Wake up! OI!"

The smooth voice of a young man woke him up from his deep slumber. While it had been the best sleep he had gotten in a few days time, his head hurt like hell now that he came to. He opened his eyes and saw a kid. _'A kid with grey hair, that's weird…'_ he thought, as his eyes traced the scar that ran from the kid's left eyes down his cheek. Purple eyes… Where had he seen that before? Yagura!

He bolted up from his lying position and almost head butted his fellow jinchūriki. It was not a dream. He was still alive!

"Where are we?" he asked Yagura, sounding like a mixture of desperate and happy.

"My hotel room in Orange Town", Yagura answered with a slight scowl on his face. Did the blonde not know? Did he seriously just roam around aimlessly?

"No, I mean where are we? As in where the heck is this? I know that we are no longer in our own world, but that is all!" Naruto sounded more and more desperate. He felt like he was so close to an explanation. He felt like had been without information for way too long.

"Oh, you mean like that? Well, stay where you are, because there is a lot to explain", he said, waiting for Naruto to make any sign that he was ready before continuing, "The world we are in is not called anything special, but it is big. Larger than the elemental nations. It mostly consists of water, the Blue Sea, which is divided into four similar, smaller seas; North Blue, South Blue, West Blue and where we are, East Blue. They are divided by the Grand Line, another body of water, from north-west to south-east, and the Red Line, a huge mountain, from south-west to north-east."

He took a break to let the slightly dumb blonde go through and sort the information before once again continuing.

"The Grand Line itself is divided into two sections. The first one is ironically called Paradise. It is a tough place to be, with irregular currents and weather. The reason it's called Paradise is because of the other half, New World, which is said to be much worse than Paradise. Only one man, Gol D. Roger, has ever fully sailed that sea. It is said that he left the legendary treasure One Piece at the end of it, but no one knows for sure. These days most people think of it as a myth. "

"But is it a myth? It would be awesome if it really exist!" Naruto exclaimed with a special gleam in his eyes, that usually only shows when he has set up a goal for himself.

"Naruto, don't go deciding things just yet. You have yet to hear another of the reasons no one have ever sailed the entire way to the end. The Grand Line is framed on each side by water without currents. No wind blows there, and it is filled with monsters called sea kings. There are sea kings all over the world, but they are most common, and largest in the calm belt. None of the tailed beasts are even close in size compared to those sea kings."

"Sounds awesome! Can we go there? Pleeease?" Naruto pleaded. This was interesting. He finally had something to do in this… What should he call it? Afterlife?

"Before that, you have some explaining to do as well. How did you die so young? I thought the war ended at that time when we got re-summoned from our deaths? And if I remember correctly, you can't be more than five years older now compared to then, can you?" Yagura questioned. In his mind, seeing that all of the larger elemental nations worked together during the war, they would have had at least a decade of war until the next argument broke lose. And who would ever be strong enough to kill Naruto? He was incredibly strong, right?

Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly at the question. "About that", he said sorting his thoughts and memories through a bit before explaining. "Let's make it simple. After the war ended, the only bijū left were Kurama, Shukaku and Gyūki. All of the others disappeared together with Kaguya and the Gedō statue. They did not resurrect, nor did they get loose when the statue got destroyed. They simply disappeared and nobody knew why or where."

Naruto paused and Yagura nodded to show that he was following.

"So when the war ended, the world became conflicted. Why did some villages get to have jinchūriki while others didn't? The people stood out with it for a while, but they were scared. It was a bit like Kiri during your reign. Man fear those with more power than themselves. So after a few years the world came to the decision that jinchūriki were unnecessary power, and it would be better to rid the world of them. I, Gaara and Killer B decided to follow the decision in hope that it would lead to greater good, and we were executed together. To ensure the bijūs death as well, I gave both of my friends seals similar to my own."

"So that's it? You just went with it without objections?" Yagura wondered, stroking his chin in a manner that did not fit his young appearance at all.

The blonde laughed at his antics with a skew smile. "Yeah, we did. I hope it was not in vain. Actually, Kakashi did not like the fact that his student would die before him, so he died with us. I hope he followed us here."

"So what's your next plan? Because I am rather sure you're not thinking about settling down here?"

Yagura was right. Naruto had no intention of settling down. He remembered that all in all he had sensed nine presences, and he was dead set on finding them all. He explained his idea to Yagura, who took well to it and decided to follow the charismatic, young shinobi. This was going to be interesting.

Together they walked down to the reception, where Yagura checked out and paid for his visit. Not one for large suitcases, he had everything in a simple sealing scroll which took almost no space at all.

They walked down the road where Naruto had walked earlier. Upon seeing the newly reconstructed house Naruto had helped building, Yagura remembered something.

"Hey, one more thing about this world. There are people with abilities similar to ours, albeit still different. Those with abilities have all eaten a fruit called Akuma no mi, or Devil's fruit. All of the fruits grants the consumer different abilities, and the abilities are divided into three different classes; paramecia, zoan and logia. But I'll tell you more about them ass soon as we meet someone who has their powers", he said to Naruto.

The blond seemed very interested in the though of getting powers simply by eating fruit, and he was so immersed by the thought that he missed the fact that they had gotten down to the harbor. He walked to the end of it, and fell of the edge, deep in thought. As soon as the splash was heard, the ninja had already climbed up again and looked angrily at Yagura as he shook the water out of his hair.

"Teme! You could have warned me!" he said in an accusing way as he pointed towards the man.

"And how fun would that have been?" was his simple answer. "Now do you have a ship or do you want to travel with me and Isobu?"

"Right, Isobu. I had almost forgotten him… Well, I have my own way to travel, so me and Ryouichi will lead the way!" Naruto said as the sea king's head rised above the surface upon feeling his master's presence.

A/N: So this chapter is a bit longer, but still not as long as I'd like them to be. I will have too keep working on that... I am also going to tell you that I won't really have any time to write until Thursday, since I've got national tests tomorrow, a presentation on Wednesday and a book seminar on Thursday.

Love,  
ArtlieST


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